Opuscula Appalled, Ashamed By ignorance

I WATCHED AS A FOX TV personality questioned random people on the streets of New York City, asking them questions about U.S. history.

I can understand a visitor to America not knowing U.S. history, but not a naturalized citizen and certainly not a product of the U.S. educational system (never mind CRT, “new math,” and Ebonics).

As it happens, my Spouse, who was watching with me, knew 90% of the answers; she had to know then to gain her U.S. citizenship back in the 1970s.

The Fox guy asked an assortment of people — different ages, different races (albeit all “human”). There was one gentleman of my generation who knew ALL the answers to ALL the questions.

Was school so much different, better, “then” than it is today?

 

Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” while British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” ^{https://tinyurl.com/ufx kpya}

Santayana on education (https://tinyurl.com/56b5z2jc)

Short Sampler

What country helped the U.S. in the Revolutionary War?

From what country did the U.S. want to separate?

When was the Revolutionary War fought?

Answers:

France, already at war with England.

Many Americans wanted to be rid of England’s king (some wanted to stay with England)

The war officially commenced in 1775 and ended in 1776. (Bonus: The U.S. Marines were founded in 1775.)

Who were America’s enemies during World War 2?

When did the U.S. enter the war?

What was the Lend-Lease Act?

Answers:

Germany, Italy, and Japan

December 7, 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii before declaring war

The Act provided war materials to Russia and England before the U.S. officially entered the war.

Civil War: Kin against kin (https://tinyurl.com/297etb5v)

Americans fought a “civil” war (brother against brother, father against son).

When did the war officially commence and end?

Why was the war fought?

Who won the war?

Answers:

1861 to 1865

The war was fought to “preserve the Union.” (The Emancipation Proclamation came well after hostilities commenced and applied only to slaves in secessionist states.)

The Federal government, with its industry, prevailed.

What are “U.S. highways?

Answers:

All highways with “U.S.” numbers (e.g. US 1, US 41) are STATE roads that receive some Federal money for their maintenance.

The only “U.S.” roads are on Federal lands (forests, parks, military installations, etc.)

The Interstate System was created under the Eisenhower administration as a way to rapidly move military equipment and troops. Each Interstate highway had to have two-mile straight stretches every so often to allow B-52 bombers to land, load, and take off.

What U.S. president instituted Social Security?

Answer:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

President Harry S Truman integrated the U.S. military

President Eisenhower integrated public schools

President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated Head Start

What was the last war the U.S. won?

World War 2.

It managed a cease fire in Korea

It followed the French out of Vietnam

It declared premature victory in Iraq

It ignobly left Afghanistan after more than 20 years

Now the easy one.

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (right) (no relation to Karl) used to ask this question of people who did poorly on his popular radio and tv show “You Bet Your Life”: Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?

U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia Dent Grant

 

---

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Ashamed

Opuscula DUMB0crat must Have frozen brain To seek my vote

THERE IS A DUMBocrat running for a congressional seat in Ohio.

This DUMBocrat continues to send me — a Floridian conservative — with appeals for send cash to help the campaign.

 

ON READING THE CANDIDATE'S FIRST mistaken missive, I sent the candidate a message I THOUGHT making it clear that

1. I do not live in Ohio
2. I am a conservative (albeit one who often votes a split ticket)
3. The John Glenn to whom she apparently thinks she’s communicating — former U.S. Marine officer, astronaut (twice), U.S. Senator from Ohio, and once candidate for president (he didn’t get past the primaries) — died on December 8, 2016

This scrivener

1. Started life in Indiana
2. Was an Air Force enlisted man
3. Ran — and lost — for Red Bluff CA city council
4. Was a fairly successful newspaper printer, newspaper reporter and editor, PR flack, and technical writer, finally retiring as an enterprise risk management practitioner.
5. I am very much alive.

In all my travels I never lived in the Buckeye State — traveled through the state on occasion, but never resided there.

The parties, particularly the Democrats, have a reputation for “digging up” votes and voters

Most people who know how to read and have ever studied U.S. political history are well acquainted with the name Tammany Hall.¹

Tammany Hall is infamous in U.S. politics for its shenanigans, including buying votes and managing to have dead people vote — Democrat, of course.

Chicago is no better.²

“You gotta swallow this one,” says a Republican hack in Oliver Stone’s Nixon, referring to the 1960 election, in which John F. Kennedy prevailed. “They stole it fair and square.”

According to CBS³

Susie Sallee was buried in 1998. Yet records show she voted in Chicago 12 years later.

Victor Crosswell died in 1994, but records show he’s voted six times since then.

And then there’s Floyd Stevens. Records show he’s voted 11 times since his death in 1993.

Again, Democrats caught in the act.

Given the Ohio hopeful’s political allegiance and the fact the candidate — and/or the candidate’s handlers — either cannot read or their level of comprehension of the English language is less than that of a pre-kindergarten child, there is no way this scrivener would — let alone could — mark a ballot for the candidate.

This MIGHT become possible under the proposed new federal voting rules. Congress apparently has forgotten a war was fought over federal interference in the states’ rights.

The last email appeal from this particular candidate offered me the opportunity to buy clothing emblazoned with the candidate’s name.

I don’t pay anyone for the pleasure of advertising their product, not even Nike. If someone wants me to don advertising apparel, they can either GIVE me the item or pay me for being a signboard.

Apparently courting non-eligible voters is a common Ohio practice.

I recently got an invitation from yet another DUMBocrat asking for my vote.

I flagged the first candidate’s emails for SPAM; political porn, if you will (and I do).

The spam filter is only so-so, but when I see the sender’s ID, my finger automatically goes to the Del key.

I only received one missive mistake from the other candidate. If I am burdened with any more emails from that source, it also will be flagged as political porn.

Perhaps what I SHOULD do is complain to whatever office is in charge of electioneering in Ohio to let the Powers That Be know what the DUMBocrat candidates are doing. I suspect, however, that would be a waste of a stamp.

Now that DUMBocrats control both houses of Congress and are playing the judiciary (instead of their Constitutional role as legislators — but when has the Constitution ever been considered sacred?) they intend to revamp ALL voting laws and to make a new law that would prevent Donald Trump for ever holding office again. (Did I mention they are running roughshod over the Constitution?)

This is not the United States I was born into in 1943.

This is not the United States to which I brought my blushing bride in 1979.

I still place hand on heart when I hear the National Anthem or watch the flag being raised or passing by.

I firmly believe in equality for all and think that discrimination laws for this or that condition are stupid: discrimination should be outlawed: PERIOD.

I also believe the country’s regressives are about to prove Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás⁴ was right as was Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr.’s Pogo.⁵

---

Sources

1. https://www.history.com/topics/us-politics/tammany-hall

2. https://www.helleniscope.com/2020/11/05/voter-fraud-is-nothing-new-the-1960-election-of-jfk/

3. https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/10/27/2-investigators-chicago-voters-cast-ballots-from-beyond-the-grave/

4. https://images.linescafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/T-1856.jpg

5. http://libertytree.ca/quotes/Walt.Kelly.Quote.96B1

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on DUMBocrats

Opuscula The Proud Boys Are Racists ! The WWW says so

EXCEPT IT IS A LIE.

IF, as the Democrats, liberals, many cartoonists and editorial writers, and the denizens of the WWW are correct, then

WHY is the leader of the Proud Boys a black (!), Cuban (!)-American?¹

WHY are the Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter (!) working together in Utah?²

As my son the geek might say: “That does not compute.”


Candorville cartoon by Darrin Bell for Monday, 5 OCT 2020³

LET ME REPEAT,

The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, is a black Cuban-American; so much for racist and xenophobic charges.

The Proud Boys are working with BLM, at least in Utah.


Screen capture of KUTV Channel 2 meeting with Proud Boys and BLM leaders.⁴

 

Established in the midst of the 2016 presidential election by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys are self-described “western chauvinists” who adamantly deny any connection to the racist “alt-right,” insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt” agenda.

Ignoring this, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) declared that Their disavowals of bigotry are belied by their actions: rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists.⁵

Wikipedia, that also declares the Proud Boys to be a danger, claims it is ”the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, basically meaning that anyone can enter anything about anything and it may go unchallenged; accepted as fact simply because “Wikipedia said so.”

Apparently the Proud Boys reputation as being “white supremacists” goes back to when they, along with other groups, clashed with (mostly white) liberals tearing down history in Charlottesville, VA.

It was never a matter of “white supremacy” but a matter of trying to prevent the mostly white liberals from erasing history.

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás’ remark on history ignored may predict another civil war in the United States: anarchists against patriots. The only possible winners will be China or Russia. America as we know it will be a thing of the past.

The U.S. has been sliding slowly toward socialism since Franklin Delano Roosevelt owned the White House. Lyndon Baines Johnson pushed it along during his tenure in the White House.

Joe Biden promises to move the country farther toward a socialist state, driven by Harris-Emhoff and her far-left supporters.

 


Gary Varvel editorial cartoon for 5 OCT 2020 ⁶

---

Sources

1. Proud Boys' leader: https://tinyurl.com/y3jur5xk

2. Proud Boys & BLM: https://tinyurl.com/yyj7yudy

3 Darrin Bell: https://tinyurl.com/y66mrr3d

4. KUTV 2: https://tinyurl.com/yyj7yudy

5. SPLC: https://tinyurl.com/y2rzvdxu

6. Gary Varvel: https://tinyurl.com/y2eaeyvx

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Proud Boys

"Day of Infamy" Forgotten

 

Sunday was December 7.

I failed to hear or see any mention of what occurred on that date in 1941.

Not a word. Not a picture. Not a lowered flag.

Perhaps it's been "rolled into" 9-11 (2001), another sneak attack on American shores that took more than 3,000 lives.

Or maybe because the December 7th memorial is beneath the waves while the 9-11 memorial is visible is the reason December 7th went unobserved.

Or perhaps because America's young adults can only accommodate one national disaster at a time, and Pearl Harbor was the "old folks'" disaster.

I'm sure that somewhere someone recalled the historic event, someone probably in the ranks of "Senior Citizens."

Maybe Americans are tired of memorials, of remembrances of those who died for their country - and a number of men and women who died for a country that was not yet theirs. Those who died in declared wars, in "police actions," and those murdered at the hands of terrorists. After all, we have Memorial Day and Veterans' Day, we have Gen. Lee's estate, and local monuments.

Maybe we don't remember why November 11th is a day of remembrance - a reminder of Armistice Day, when the "War to end all wars" ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, a day we now call Veterans' Day.

Unlike the English and Canadians, we don't generally write poems about our servicemen and women, we have no In Flanders Fields by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae or Our God and Souldiers we alike adore - credited to Englishmen Francis Quarles (1592–1644) and reworked into modern English by Rudyard Kipling as A Time For Prayer

Perhaps 1941 is too far removed from 2014. A person born on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked would be 73 on the date's anniversary this year.

Maybe, despite - or because of - the constant conflicts in which the U.S. has been involved since the end of the Second World War, Americans don't want to think about those who serve or served their country.

Then again, December 7th may be "just another day" for so many since they never put on a uniform and have no concept of what serving their country means.

No matter what reason or excuse is given, the absence of any notice of the seventh day of December 2014 is a sad state of affairs.

To quote Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

Opuscula KneeJerk

 

I'm not sure if "knee jerk" is one word or two or if it applies to a hasty reaction to something or to the person who is reacting*.

But the incumbent at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC comes to mind for both options.

Knee Jerk #1: Sending U.S. military personnel to fight the ebola epidemic in Africa.

Knee Jerk #2: Training and arming "moderate" terrorists in Syria and Iraq to combat the so-called Islamic State which, it seems, is considered an "extreme" terrorist group.

When will we ever learn?

Obviously not on Obama's watch.

Ebola

It's nice that the U.S. might be able to help the folks in Africa who contracted the normally fatal disease.

But, just as sending troops into combat puts American lives at risk, so does sending American troops to fight a disease that has a 90% fatality rate.

According to Wikipedia, The virus may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected animal. Spreading through the air has not been documented in the natural environment. Fruit bats are believed to be a carrier and may spread the virus without being affected. Once human infection occurs, the disease may spread between people, as well. Male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months.

The problem is, there is little in the way of laboratories where the disease runs rampant, so it is not easily diagnosed.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a page of links that cover all ebola-related concerns.

According to the CDC's "risk of exposure" information,

High risk exposures

A high risk exposure includes any of the following:

• Percutaneous (e.g., needle stick) or mucous membrane exposure to blood or body fluids of EVD patient
  

• Direct skin contact with, or exposure to blood or body fluids of, an EVD patient without appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)
  

• Processing blood or body fluids of a confirmed EVD patient without appropriate PPE or standard biosafety precautions
  

• Direct contact with a dead body without appropriate PPE in a country where an EVD outbreak is occurring*

Low risk exposures

A low risk exposure includes any of the following

• Household contact with an EVD patient
  

• Other close contact with EVD patients in health care facilities or community settings. Close contact is defined as
  
  1. being within approximately 3 feet (1 meter) of an EVD patient or within the patient’s room or care area for a prolonged period of time (e.g., health care personnel, household members) while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment (i.e., standard, droplet, and contact precautions; see Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations)
     

  2. having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD patient while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment.

• Brief interactions, such as walking by a person or moving through a hospital, do not constitute close contact

Today the U.S. has an experimental drug that was successfully used on two American ebola patients. Unfortunately there is no stockpile of a drug deemed, even now, as "experimental."

According to Israeli sources, the blood of a person who survives being infected by ebola contains an antibody that seems to preclude that person from contracting ebola again. There was discussion in the U.S. of taking blood from one of the two survivors and using it on the remaining U.S. ebola victim, Meanwhile, the Israelis - and others - are searching for a serum to counteract the disease.

Training and arming "moderate" terrorists

Proving that neither the country's chief executive nor his advisors have ever read a newspaper or history book, and certainly never heard the expression "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 - September 26, 1952), Obama is proposing to train and arm "moderate" Islamist terrorists, those doing battle against the Islamic State.

Perhaps he intends for the U.S. to once again arm the Taliban as it did during the Cold war days when the Taliban were fighting the Soviets. The Taliban, having sent the Russians packing, promptly turned the weapons on the U.S. and anyone who wanted real or pseudo-democracy in Afghanistan.

Today, U.S. personnel are being murdered by U.S. trained Iraqis armed with U.S. weapons. These Iraqis are supposed to be America's allies.

Even if the Iraqis stopped killing the people sent to help them, as late as September 17, 2014, a U.S. general states that Half (of the) Iraqi Army Incapable Of Working With America - and this while the Islamic State takes over more and more of Iraq.

Training and arming terrorists to combat another terrorist organization and expecting peace and appreciation for America from a "moderate" terrorists group is a political pipe dream, especially when both extremists and moderates share so much ideology.

Although Obama promises "no American boots on the ground," that is a blatant lie. Even today there are several hundred "advisors" in Iraq. The incumbent is following in the footsteps of every president since Harry S Truman left office. In Dwight D. Eisenhower's time, the soldiers were part of "Military Advisory Groups" or MAGs. (To be fair, neither Eisenhower nor those that followed him remembered history and the fact that the Vietnamese had sent the French packing.

Obama is doing only one thing different from his predecessors is that he promoted, urged on by his far left, liberal money people, to work to instigate the "Arab Spring" which has brought instability throughout the reason. Obama, and his advisors, - one again - failed to do their homework to see that the former European powers had accomplished with their arbitrary borders.

Most of the "Islamic" countries in the region are artificial - they are composed of individual tribes, many who hate their neighbor. Only a strong central power, e.g., Sadam in Iraq, Sadat in Syria, could keep a lid on local warlords. The liberals either failed to understand that or elected to disregard what was obvious to previous administrations.

 

* Kneejerk: an immediate unthinking emotional reaction produced by an event or statement to which the reacting person is highly sensitive; - in persons with strong feelings on a topic, it may be very predictable.